Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-06-03
TEXAS.
The Prohibition Campaign Now
in Progress in the Lone
Star State.
The Struggle a Non.Partisan One
August 4 Set for the Election
The Prospects.

The Struggle a Non.Partisan One
August 4 Set for the Election
The Prospects.
The eyes of all those who hope for the
coming Of better era TO the natien through
the advent Of prohibition are now turned
hopefully to the State of Texas, says the
Toledo Blade. An amendment to the
State constitution, by which the manufact-
ure and sale of all intoxicating liquors
shall be forbidden, is TO be voted upon by
the Texans on August 4; and the provisions
of the State constitution are such, it seems,
that if the amendment be defeated the
question cannot again be submitted to the
popular vote for eight years. Hence the
struggle in this great State, the largest of
the Union, RACES intensely over every square
mile of the $4,000 within this mighty I'M
periun IN imperio.
There is decided Yankee leaven in the
Lone Star State. Her population is q di-
verse one, made up originally of the more
hardy and adventurous from all parts OF the
Union. Since the war, the extension Of
the Southwestern Railway system and 9TH
or lines within her borders, the attractions
of soil and climate, and the inducements
offered to those looking for cheap homes,
have drawn to her large number of thrifty
farmers from the North, many of whom are
from bleak New England; and these have
taken with them the ideas dominant in
their Northern homes. The Texan COM
mon school system is one of the best in the
South, and tho percentage of illiteracy Is
less than in any other State in that section.
The prohibition idea has been growing
for years in the State, and tho demand for
the prescription Of the rum traffic has
grown louder with each succeeding session
is purely non partisan. The line separa-
ting the friends of the amendment from the
rum power cuts squarely across the line
dividing Democracy and Republicanism.
Texas is Democratic State-so rockville
bed that the partys majority in the Presi-
Dental canvass of 1884 was something like
100000. The people are thoroughly
aroused on the matter, and party politics
seem entirely laid aside, so far as this cam
paign is concerned.
Many of the most distinguished of the
Democratic leaders are out in favor of the
amendment, Senator Regain being the
latest distinguished convert to prohibition.
Not many years ago he bitterly opposed,
on the floor of the Texas House of Rep
resentativcs, the appointment of a select
committee to investigate the evils of the
! rum traffic. He is now outspoken in his
| support of the amendment, and energetic
| ally calls upon the decent element of the
| Democracy to cut the party loose from the
| saloon and its degrading associations.
Representatives Maxey, Culberson and
other prominent Democrats are also on the
side Of right. Senator Coke stands non
committal while other Democratic leaders
are bitterly opposed to the amendment.
The Republicans are largely in favor Of it,
and the prospects are good for tremen-
dous triumph for prohibition.
| The prohibition movement in Texas is
so formidable that the executive commit
tee of the "Na!ional Protective Associa-
tion"-an organization at the head of tho
organized rum power of the nation, COM
| posed OF the liquor manufacturers and
| dealers, wholesale and retail, of the whole
countrv-was called TO meet at Cincinnati
a few days ago, and spent several days in
disc ussing plan of campaign in Texas
and Tennessee. The great danger to the
rum power was seen to be in Texas, and
everything possible to defeat the amend
ment in that State will be DONE The tao
tics used in Michigan will be repeated in
that State. Two solicitors will be appoint
ed to visit all Northern cities, where they
| will endeavor to induce all the rum-sellers
possible to join the organization and con-
tribute money to perpetuate the reign OF
the rum devil in Texas. Reduced to plain
English, this means that huge corruption
fund will be raised to be expended in buy
ing venal votes, in bribing election officials,
and in endeavoring by fraud and force to
| repeat the shameful result thus accom-
plished III Michigan.
The word has already been passed to
cultivate the farmer vote and the negro
vote, and there is general upheaval all
along the line. The hopes of the friends
OF the amendment are that so many of the
local Democratic leaders will be on their
side that the usual count out" will not be
successful, for these men know the meth
ods that have been used, and will be on
the alert to defeat them. If fraud and in
| tlmidation can be eliminated from tho ell c.
ton, the amendment will win.
Surely, the old, old cry of the rum
power, Prohibition does not prohibit" is
worn threadbare by this time! If it does
not, why these mighty efforts to oppose
prohibitory measures? The simple fact is
prohibition is the only solution for the
nquor problem. License gives it the pro-
lection or the law, taxation puts burden
upon it; both are tentative measures
useful to repress, but by 10 means final
settlements of the question. Either the
rum power must rule The land, or it must
be destroyed. 1t is impatient of restriction
and control; it aims at supreme power.
The saloon has grown to be an overshadow-
ing despotism in every city of the nation.
1t controls the verdict of the people at the
ballot box, and where it can not do so fairly
by majority of votes in its favor, it does
so through corruption and fraud, as it did
IN Michigan the other day. 1t sets at de-
nance all laws conserving good order,
decency, and Sabbath observance. because
they interfere with its profits. It fills the
land with its bloated drunken slaves. and
destroys every home wherein it enters. II
runs men weak enough to weld to the
cravings OF the rum thirst, and drags them
| down TO poverty and ruin. 1t is the con
sefvator OF crime, the fountain-head of the
grave evils that threaten our social and
poilt,cal system. 1t can not be controlled
1t will not obey, and it mus. be destroved'